- While researchers around the state continued detective
work Wednesday into what caused the mass of black water in Florida Bay,
scientists from the University of South Florida were putting together a
picture of its progression from satellite data. Dr. Frank Muller-Karger
and Dr. Chuanmin Hu, of the university's remote sensing laboratory, said
the pictures can't tell the whole story, but they might give clues about
the source of the water.
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- While researchers around the state continued detective
work Wednesday into what caused the mass of black water in Florida Bay,
scientists from the University of South Florida were putting together a
picture of its progression from satellite data.
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- Several images from Orbimage's SeaWiFS satellite should
help scientists discover the source of a wide body of black water in the
Gulf of Mexico. The first, taken on Jan. 9, shows the water's appearance
offshore. Photo courtesy Orbimage
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- Dr. Frank Muller-Karger and Dr. Chuanmin Hu, of the university's
remote sensing laboratory, said the pictures can't tell the whole story,
but they might give clues about the source of the water.
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- Hu said the black water first appeared on satellite images
in mid-December about 30 to 60 miles north of the Keys. At its peak in
early February, it was larger than Lake Okeechobee but began to diffuse
into the surrounding Gulf of Mexico waters in recent weeks.
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- Other scientists with the Florida Marine Research Institute
in St. Petersburg and the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota are testing
samples of the water to see if the chemicals, dissolved matter and organisms
in it might point to a source.
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- Results from those tests should begin coming in today,
said Beverly Roberts, research administrator for the institute.
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- Fish spotter pilots were the first to discover the black
water in January. Though fishermen didn't find dead fish in its wake, they
report an abysmal season for those waters and unusual behavior in the few
fish they did find.
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- While the images from the private company Orbimage's
SeaWiFS and a NASA satellite show that the water might be coming from the
Shark River, not all the pictures are consistent with that possibility,
Muller-Karger said.
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- In some images, the water appears to be coming from the
river, which has its outlet about 35 miles south of Marco Island. But Hu
said the water doesn't quite behave like river runoff and settles to the
bottom as it travels farther from the source.
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- The second image from Orbimage's SeaWiFS satellite, shot
on Feb. 4, shows the growth and movement south of the black water. Photo
courtesy Orbimage
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- "Why, only in the center, do (the particles) appear
to sink?" Hu asked.
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- He said another possible source might be from some kind
of underwater fountain spewing the black water from the seabed.
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- "That would explain the isolated black water mass,"
he said.
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- Hu is also looking at images from past years to see if
the black water came and went before with no one noticing, though he pointed
out that fishermen with decades on the water had never seen the phenomenon.
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- "The samples will tell more of a story than the
satellite images," he said.
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- Researchers from the Mote Lab and others sent boats to
collect the water in recent days. They found unusually dark water in pockets
along the north side of the 126-mile chain of Keys. Along with a popular
tourist spot, the chain is also home to the delicate coral reef ecosystem
in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
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- Scientists have speculated that it could be from an unknown
algae or bacteria bloom or from fresh water somehow reaching the bay.
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- Field testing of the water by Mote on Tuesday showed
that it had normal salinity and oxygen content.
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- The normal salinity wouldn't rule out river runoff, said
Erich Mueller, director of Mote's Center for Tropical Research in the Keys.
That could've returned as the water mixed with the gulf.
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- "(River runoff) sounds right now like the most logical
explanation, but it's certainly not a done deal," Mueller said.
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